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The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil,    but because of the people who don't do anything about it

Occupation magazine - Life under occupation Home page  back Print  Send To friend Negligence of the Israeli soldiers exposes Palestinian children at risk on the way to school, South Hebron Hills Operation Dove PRESS RELEASE October 2, 2013 At Tuwani - In the afternoon of October 1, the Israeli military escort left ten Palestinian children from Tuba and Magayir Al-Abeed alone on their way back from school. Every day the escort accompanies to school the children on the road that passes between the settlement of Ma`on and the outpost of Havat Ma`on. After school the children had to wait near the Israeli outpost of Havat Ma`on (Hill 833) for over 1 hour and 40 minutes, but the army did not arrive. Therefore, the children start to walk through a longer way (more than one hour instead of 20 minutes) accompanied by some internationals. This path is dangerous because it runs beside the outpost and along this way the children were repeatedly attacked and chased by the settlers. Operation Dove volunteers and Israeli associations called several times the Israeli army; since the first call the army officer kept declaring that the escort was on its way. On September 29 the escort delay was more than 1 hour and 15 minutes. Since the beginning of the current school year (August 25) the escort has rarely fulfilled its duty. The children had to wait the escort for about 16 hours in total. On 61% of the mornings the children were late at school more than 5 minutes and on 69% of the school days they had to wait after the school for the military escort. Furthermore, in contravention of the protective mandate of the escort, the Israeli military failed to fully complete the escort on the 89% of the cases (the soldiers did not walk until the end of the settlement on 49 of 55 total cases). This situation of exposure to violence and lack of security compromises their fundamental right to education. This military escort was established in November 2004 by `Children Rights Committee of theKnesset`, to protect the children from the several attacks that they have suffered since 2001 by settlers of Havat Ma`on on the route to the school. To avoid the attacks, the children were using a path two hours long. For further information on the military escort and how it was carried out in the past years, the report `The Dangerous Road to Education. Palestinian Students Suffer Under Settler Violence and Military Negligence` is available at: http://goo.gl/CXfi9 Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004. Pictures of the incident: http://snipurl.com/27wx5tl For further information: Operation Dove, 054 99 25 773 Links to the latest articles in this section Occupation forces injure mourners following funeral of slain infant Mohammad Tamimi Nabi Saleh village assaulted - toddler shot in the head died in hospital Palestinians in the snow: thrown from home into the snow, throw snowballs and get arrested